The Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson - A Short Summary and Review
The Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson - A Short Summary and Review
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
A short summary:
The Rum Diary follows Paul Kemp, a restless journalist who takes a job at a struggling English-language newspaper in 1950s Puerto Rico. What begins as a professional opportunity quickly dissolves into a haze of rum-soaked nights, moral ambiguity, and simmering tension beneath the Caribbean sun. The island setting provides both beauty and decay, with American expatriates drifting between ambition and self-destruction.
Though known for the later excess of Gonzo journalism, this early novel reveals Thompson experimenting with tone and form. Beneath the drinking and bravado lies a sharp critique of American opportunism, colonial undertones, and the fragile ethics of journalism. Kemp’s disillusionment mirrors the crumbling newspaper around him, a world where idealism competes with corruption and escapism.
My favorite quote from the book:
Questions to ponder while reading:
My review:
There is a distinctly fifties texture to this novel.
The men speak in clipped, swaggering dialogue. They posture, drink, chase women, argue about journalism, and pretend indifference to the consequences of their choices. The world of The Rum Diary feels steeped in mid-century masculinity, smoke-filled rooms, sharp suits gone rumpled, ambition dulled by heat and alcohol.
But beneath that surface lies something darker.
Thompson exposes the underbelly of expatriate life in Puerto Rico: exploitation masked as enterprise, moral compromise disguised as adventure. The Caribbean setting is not merely scenic; it becomes a stage where American ambition plays out against economic inequality and cultural displacement. Kemp is neither hero nor villain; he drifts, observes, and participates in the decay around him.
The novel lacks the frenetic energy of Thompson’s later work, but its restraint gives it a different kind of bite. It feels less like spectacle and more like slow disillusionment. A portrait of men who believe they are independent, when in truth they are trapped by their appetites.
Rum is everywhere in this story, but so is reckoning.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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